Jaimie Davis received her doctorate in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow for just over 2 years in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California. Dr. Davis's immediate career goals are to 1) receive further training to become an independent investigator to compete for peer reviewed funding, specifically R01 grants;2) gain knowledge in various aspects of exercise physiology including the design and implementation of exercise interventions, and exercise testing and interpretation;3) receive further training on how to use, integrate, and score Motivational Interviewing to foster improvements in physical activity behaviors;4) investigate mechanisms that decrease metabolic risk factors with exercise interventions;and 5) educate and mentor undergraduate and graduate students in preparing them for careers in prevention and treatment of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes. My overall long-term career goal is to develop and implement novel, effective and sustainable interventions that can be translated and delivered in high-risk minority, community settings. My training activities will involve: 1) direct mentorship of Michael Goran, Leslie Bernstein, Donna Spruijt- Metz, and Todd Schroeder and collaboration with Kathryn Schmitz and Teresa Moyer;2) attending training conferences and seminars to gain the skills and knowledge needed to complete this study;and 3) formal coursework at USC to better understand exercise physiology, fat distribution and behavioral theories. The overall goal of the proposed research project is to examine the effects of a 16-week circuit-training (strength training + aerobic activities) program, with and without a behavioral component utilizing motivational interviewing, on decreasing obesity and type 2 diabetes risk factors in 45 overweight Latina adolescent girls (14-18 years of age). This 16-week randomized control study will examine the incremental effects of the following 3 intervention groups on insulin dynamics, fat composition and distribution, and habitual and ad libitum physical activity: 1) Control group (delayed intervention), 2) Circuit training group (2 times per week), or 3) Circuit training + Motivational Interviewing group (2 times per week of CT + weekly Ml sessions). Subjects will undergo clinical testing to assess metabolic and physiological outcomes and undergo direct observations to assess ad libitum physical activity before and after intervention. Relevance. This study will develop and implement a unique circuit training (strength training + cardiovascular exercise) program, with and without a motivational interviewing behavioral component, for overweight Latina adolescent females designed to reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes risk factors. Findings from this study will help create more wide scale, multi-component, and sustaining interventions in community settings targeting obesity and metabolic disease reduction in high-risk minority communities.